I think I have learned more than I realize over the course of this semester. I have been challenged to think outside the box, creatively speaking, and to see technology as a tool in my hands that can be as big or little as I choose to make it. If I want to grow in my skills and knowledge and desire to help others do the same, especially in my classroom, then technology can be an excellent, highly effective supplement to my normal instruction.
Perhaps the most useful programs to me were PowerPoint (because I learned how to use it beyond the “boring” and traditional ways I have seen it used), and WebQuest (since I had never used it before).
MovieMaker by Windows was a fun, useful tool as well, but I did not enjoy using it as much as the other programs. This became especially apparent to me through our fieldwork experience. However, it was exciting to teach students a new program and watch them collaborate to produce something worth sharing; it helped other students gain a stronger grasp on the themes of the book they were reading after viewing the work of different groups. MovieMaker can be appealing to students, especially at on the secondary level, because it develops similar critical thinking skills as planning to write a paper about certain themes or concepts relating to a novel, in a fun, fresh way (incorporating sound, pictures, and other forms of digital media).
All in all, this class greatly increased my enthusiasm for continuing my own education in the area of technology even as I begin to teach it. It also helped me discover many useful techniques and methods of incorporating it into my curriculum that will not only engage students of various ability levels and learning styles, but will afford them the opportunity to grow along with our unbelievably fast-paced, technologically-driven world.
1 comment:
Hye there Jessica..I'm one of TESL students from Malaysia and can be said,a future teacher. I was really interested in your writing about your future classroom. I also had learnt about technology and its involvement in schools. We were exposed on SMARTBOARD and I found it as a very useful tool to be used in classroom as it is interactive for young learners. For me, it is good for a teacher to integrate technology in his/her classroom. However, teachers too should have backup plan since technology may sometimes bring problems to teaching and learning programme.
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